Record Masterclass
The censuses of Canada’s North-West Provinces can help you trace settlers,
The censuses of Canada’s North-West Provinces can help you trace settlers in the family, says Michelle Higgs
The government offered the land for free to homesteaders
From the 1870s, the Canadian government sought immigrants to live and farm in the largely unpopulated prairies of the NorthWest Territories. This enormous region lay between the Province of Manitoba and the Canadian Rockies, and beginning in 1871 the government entered into treaties with the native peoples, or First Nations, who already lived there; this subject remains controversial because the tribes were never financially compensated.
The government offered the land for free to the new homesteaders, targeting migrants from eastern Canada and worldwide, including Britain and other countries in Europe.
At first, take-up of the offer was slow but, from the mid-1880s, the development of the railway made it more financially viable for farmers to transport and sell wheat and livestock. Consequently, the number of new settlers increased significantly from the late 1890s.
Qualifying Criteria
Homestead regulations stipulated that any man aged 18 or over, or any widow
who was head of a family, was eligible for a quartersection of land (equivalent to 160 acres). Each settler had to live on the homestead for at least six months in three consecutive years; break 10 acres every year during that time; and build a house to live in. More than 1.25 million homesteads were eventually created.
Each township was divided into 36 sections based on a chequerboard survey. Even-numbered sections were available for free homesteading, while oddnumbered ones could be purchased from the Canadian Pacific Railway. This meant that families could easily expand their acreage. For immigrants who came from Britain, the North-West Territories offered the opportunity to own land, something that they could never have dreamed of doing at home.
National Census
A national census of Canada was taken every 10 years from 1851, originally to determine parliamentary representation based on population numbers. The returns up to, and including, 1921 can be searched, for free, on the brilliant Library and Archives Canada website at bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/ Pages/census.aspx.
If your ancestors lived in the North-West Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta (later known as the Prairie Provinces), you can also search the Censuses of Population and Agriculture on the same website.
These special censuses continued until 1946, but only those for 1906, 1916 and 1926 are currently
available. You can search the database by name, age and province; click on ‘Advanced Search’ to add names of districts and sub-districts. If there are no results for your search, try one search term and/or spelling variants instead.
The census indexes and transcriptions (not the actual images) can also be viewed for free on the website FamilySearch ( familysearch. org). Also, Ancestry has the 1906 and 1916 censuses available to Worldwide subscribers, accessible via ancestry.co.uk/search/places/ canada/?category=35&pg=1& related=true&tkn=null.
Manitoba was included separately on the national census from 1870, but Saskatchewan and Alberta only officially became provinces in 1905; until then they were lumped together on the census under the term ‘North-West Territories’ and known as ‘districts’.
All three special censuses were taken in June. The statistics reveal how the population grew because of mass immigration. In 1906, Saskatchewan had 257,577 individuals; by 1926, it was 820,738. Alberta’s population increased from 184,896 in 1906 to 607,599 in 1926. The equivalent figures for Manitoba were 359,969 in 1906 and 639,056 by 1926.
The three provinces were divided into census districts and sub-districts consisting of numerous townships and/or towns, plus some Indian reserves. The 1906 census covered population and livestock, while both the 1916 and 1926 censuses concentrated on population.
Residents’ Information
Each census provided the names of every person in the family and their relationship to the head of the household, plus their age, gender and marital status. Birthplace is also given, plus the year that they immigrated to Canada; the Post Office address; and the location of the household by section, township, range and meridian.
The 1906 census was the only one that listed the number and type of animals that were owned or kept. By 1916, there were extra columns for occupation; religion; naturalisation; race and language; education; and military service. Although the
In the 1926 census residents were asked for the birthplaces of their parents
1926 census did not include occupations or religion, residents were asked for the birthplaces of their parents.
Unfortunately, the original paper records were destroyed after they were microfilmed in 1955. Today’s digitised databases were created from these microfilms, but some of the images are illegible. Another problem for family historians is that the records from a number of the subdistricts do not survive. MICHELLE HIGGS is a freelance writer and author who specialises in social history and family history